For medical institutions operating on 3-5% profit margins, every operational dollar counts. Yet many US health organizations unknowingly bleed millions in avoidable security costs that could be transformed into profit drivers.
One of the most high-profile margin drains these days comes from cyberattacks, which reached staggering levels among health institutions in 2024. The biggest health data breaches last year are estimated to have compromised more than 234 million patient records, from the Change Healthcare breach to 12 other massive cyberattacks on health platforms.
All it takes is a single threat actor exploiting one of these security vulnerabilities to go undetected for months if not years—from routine software bugs, third-party integrations, or configuration errors to an employee accidentally downloading phishing email malware or failing to activate multi-factor authentication on their login credentials.
If just one of these seemingly minor security gaps is exploited by a threat actor—security SaaS provider Rezliant estimates it can cost an enterprise health institution an estimated $6 million or more per incident.
There’s a second profit drain hidden in plain sight that operational leaders are just beginning to realize. Today understaffed security and software teams address 100s if not 1000s of vulnerabilities based on inefficient security procedures.
For security teams, that can translate to 40% of their time on average spent answering routine support questions and helping software developers with training to root cause complex and layered security flaws. In addition to security training, developers then have to code the solutions to tackle all these vulnerabilities that could otherwise be addressed through automation.
Depending on the size of an organization’s security and software development staff, a typical medical institution can spend hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in staff time addressing what amounts to security inefficiencies— capital that could otherwise be invested into patient care innovations or other strategic growth initiatives.
Forward-thinking healthcare executives focused on workflow optimization are discovering that security management is an untapped area to boost profit margins. It starts by leveraging contextual AI-enabled tech that activates automated security workflows. The benefits can be threefold:
1. Immediate Operational Cost Recovery
Example:
2. Strategic Revenue Enhancement
3. Risk Mitigation as Profit Protection
AI-driven security strategies can deliver immediate P&L impact:
AI-Driven Security Offers 4 Benefits
Smart security strategy isn't just about reducing costs; it's about enabling operational efficiencies that can boost margins. By implementing AI-driven security solutions, medical institutions can:
Optimizing your security strategy represents one of the few untapped opportunities to simultaneously reduce costs, accelerate revenue growth, and protect margins. The question isn't whether you can afford to transform your security strategy—it's whether you can afford not to.
For a free security consult or cost optimization analysis, contact Rezliant at Demo@Rezliant.com.